Monthly Archives: February 2016

The government is re-examining its policy on transgender inmates following the death of two trans women at all-male prisons in the UK. Transphobic hate crime is on the rise. Discriminatory stop & search continues.

LSE invites you to ‘Trans in the Criminal Justice System’, a panel discussion on the challenges faced by trans people and how the criminal justice system should be reformed. Audience participation is strongly encouraged, so please do come prepared to ask questions.

***The event is open to everyone.*** Please do share widely and invite everyone you think might be interested!

Please make sure you register for a ‘Ticket’ and click attending on our Facebook event. The talk is completely free but we do need to know numbers.

Panelists:

· Ulele Burnham is a barrister at Doughty Street Chambers and a former chair of the Discrimination Law Association;

· Charlie Kiss is a political activist, a former prisoner, and the first trans man to stand for parliament in the UK;

· Dr Sarah Lamble is a Senior Lecturer at Birkbeck School of Law and a leading expert on LGBT+ criminal justice issues.

This project has been commissioned by the Gender Identity Research & Education Society (GIRES) and put together by graphic designer Soofiya Andry, under the leadership of Sabah Choudrey, an LGBTQ BAME Consultant and Activist.

“GIRES is proud to support this important initiative. We have been delighted to hear BAME trans people now giving voice to their special concerns, with ever greater confidence. Wide promulgation of this important document, via the networks operated by GIRES and many other groups, provides BAME trans people with a different way to convey their concerns to all policy makers, employers and service providers, as well as to families and support groups. We encourage them to listen carefully to what BAME trans people are so clearly saying.”

SPECTRUM COMMUNITY LIBRARY PROJECT – donations needed!
We have launched a community library, where attendees can borrow books and other media. We have a small selection of books onsite, plus we have a request list that you can fill in – if we can find inexpensive copies of any requests, we’ll get hold of them for you to borrow in the future. The library will be available to group attendees only, and you will be able to keep books for a maximum of two months. We’ll be running this primarily on a basis of trust, so ask everyone to be your excellent selves when taking out books by respecting the due dates and keeping the books as readable as possible whilst they’re in your care (obviously a bit of reading/carrying-around-in-your-bag wear is expected though).

Although we can order a few requests, we’re operating this project mainly on donations. If you have any trans themed, broader LGBTQI+ themed, broader support oriented, and/or just generally great or interesting, books/dvds/zines/CDs please bring them along to one of our groups or email me at frankie@spectrum.support and we can arrange a collection.

Also massive thank you to all who have donated books so far – it takes nice people like you to help give our communities nice things (:

BINDER EXCHANGE PROJECT LAUNCH – donations needed!
We’re excited to be able to offer a binder exchange service for attendees to our groups. We’ve start with a small number, but can search around for specific requests and possibly order inexpensive ones. We will also have copies of the MORF Binder Exchange catalogue on-site; MORF have a very popular postal binder exchange service, and will hopefully be able to help where we can’t.

As with our library, we are predominately running this project on donations. If you have a binder you no longer wear, please consider donating it to our project – bring it along to one of our future groups or email me at frankie@spectrum.support and we can arrange a collection.

Shout-out for LGBT+ History Month outing ideas in February!
We are planning a London-based outing (maybe two!) for LGBT+ History Month, and want to know what you have in mind! From everyone’s ideas we’ll then have a little discussion in case there are any strong favourites or objections, and then either go with a decision if unanimous or pick one at random.

Please send LGBT+ History Month outing suggestions over to me at frankie@spectrum.support, looking forward to hearing what you want to do! (:

Submissions for ‘trans-friendly services & places to go’ resource ongoing
We have been slowly compiling a trans-friendly services/products/support resource, begun in late 2014 at our West London group. The resource currently includes trans-friendly places to go out (pubs, restaurants, bars, clubs, weekends away, etc,) trans-friendly services (hair removal services, support groups, online groups, makeup services, clothes and shoes, etc,) in and around London, and trans literature more broadly, that people have had personal and/or professional experience of, but is also open to any other suggestions that people feel would be useful.

If you have any recommendations, send me an email with the venue, service, etc, and a few words about your experience(s) to frankie@spectrum.support and I’ll add it to a future edition.